Short Film Research

 Ok, so I'm starting up the screenplay for my short film, which will be later displayed in the next blog post. Before, I wanted to share two short films I've recently watched to show where I'm drawing some inspiration from. 

The first short film I watched was actually one I came across years ago, I remember it being very good and now that I'm producing a short film myself, I truly understand the brilliance of which this was made. 

PAPERS PLEASE, 2018, directed by Nikita Ordynskivy

This short film is so freaking good, it captured the essence of how difficult to pass a certain checkpoint beyond the line of a European state, especially in a time of war. The directing, cinematography, acting, and score choice are phenomenal here. The way you can tell so much about each character just from a single border checkpoint is truly inspiring, and the way the film ends is something I want to look into as well. The intimacy captured between these close-up shots and the continued use of shot-reverse-shot really keeps the audience engaged, also something I would like to implement in my work. 

Although this short wasn't particularly my genre, it definitely showed a great way to execute certain elements of the short film. Moving on, here's another short I watched that resembles my genre. 

The Game, Written and directed by Micheal Cuni 

This short film executes the Mafia genre quite well. The element of the story with the main character being an alcoholic, the gangster vibe being created by the darkness of the shots, and the personas of the characters assisted by great writing and acting all tie up to create a good short film. I do feel like a little bit too much was put into this seven-minute creation as the story never felt abundantly clear, which is something I want to avoid. Overall, there are definitely things here that I appreciate and may use for my film as well.